EDUCATION INDICATORS: An International Perspective

Notes on Figures and Tables for Indicator 42

All countries

Gross domestic product is gross national product less net property income from abroad.

Australia

Expenditures for higher education include expenditures for vocational secondary education, as it is taught in institutions of higher education, and are from 1991-92. Expenditures for preprimary, primary-secondary, and private higher education are from 1990-91 (in 1991-92 constant dollars).

Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Italy

All expenditure figures are derived from figure for public education expenditure per GDP, multiplied by current/total expenditure ratio for total public and private education expenditure.

Belgium

Research expenditures are included to the extent that they are covered by funds provided by the community education authorities. Research funds from other public and private sources are excluded.

Canada

Preprimary expenditures are not calculated separately; rather, they are included in primary-secondary expenditures.

Denmark and Norway

Expenditure data for publicly supported private schools include capital expenditures.

Finland

Public/private expenditure ratio from 1991 is used.

Public/private ratio reported for "all levels" is used for both primary-secondary and higher education.

The percentage is affected by the decline in GDP between 1990 and 1992. Expenditure for "not allocated by level" includes expenditure for adult education and educational expenditure from the Ministry of Education and the National Board of Education. Research expenditure includes general university and business enterprise funds but not other separately identified R&D funds.

West Germany (former)

Expenditure data for publicly supported private schools include capital expenditures and contributions to the pension funds of teachers who are civil servants. Total educational expenditures are not complete. The following expenditures are missing: private schools (however, public grants given to private schools are included); schools for nurses; agricultural training and research centers: German Research Foundation; Federal Institute for Employment (expenditure for retraining, better qualification, etc.); training of apprentices in the public service; support payments for dependent children made to persons undergoing education/training; allowances paid to teachers enjoying the status of public official for medical treatment and health insurance; scholarships granted by private institutions; households' purchases of commodities and services for education.

Public expenditures broken down by level of education and by type of expenditure are estimates.

Almost all expenditure on research is included: there are some minor omissions.

Ireland

Expenditure includes mainstream higher education research.

Expenditures of private entities other than households are underestimated because they are only provided for higher education. The expenditures for the other levels of education are not available.

Japan

All separately identifiable research expenditure has not been taken into account but compensation of teaching staff (and other regular staff) in universities is included.

New Zealand

Education expenditures represent total public expenditure (i.e., include capital expenditure and debt service) and are derived from public education expenditure per GDP figure.

Norway

Expenditures for preprimary education in government-dependent institutions (their amount is small) are included in expenditures for primary education.

Spain

Public expenditure for education is underestimated because a large part of the pension costs are not included.

Payments to independent private institutions for higher education are underestimated because only the payments of private entities to universities for their activities of research and development are included.

Expenditure on research has been partly taken into account. Some higher education institutions have all R&D expenditure in their budgets; others have only general university funds and certain types of contracts.

Sweden

Preprimary and higher education figures include capital expenditures.

Switzerland

All expenditure figures are derived from figure for public education expenditure per GDP multiplied by current/total expenditure ratio for total public and private education expenditures.

Expenditure data for publicly supported private schools include capital expenditures.

Expenditure data include only net expenditures for ancillary services.

United Kingdom

All expenditure figures are derived from figure for public education expenditure per GDP multiplied by current/total expenditure ratio for total public and private education expenditures.

Excludes expenditure on nursing and paramedical education.

Expenditure by or on behalf of independent institutions at the higher education level has been assumed to be negligible.

Only general university funds and grants from the Department of Education are included. All other separate R&D funds have not been taken into account.

United States

All research expenditures are included except for funds on major university-administered federal R&D centers.

Technical Notes

This indicator does not give a complete picture of the distribution of
public resources between the three levels, since some countries did not classify portions of their public expenditures, reporting them, instead, as "undistributed."

The indicator is also influenced by the duration of each level in different countries. For example, if primary education lasts 4 years in one country and
6 years in another, we would expect the primary share of GDP funding to be roughly 1.5 times as large in the latter country, other things being equal.

Countries sometimes designate different level classifications to a particular type of education program. This is particularly true of certain types of vocational and technical education, which are considered secondary education in some countries and higher education in others.

Some countries' expenditures for higher education include substantial public subsidies for student living expenses, whereas other countries' expenditures do not. Also, the higher education expenditures of some countries include the full costs of research conducted at higher education institutions, while the figures of other countries include only selected portions of research outlay.

Methodology Used for Adjusting Inflation Rates

See supplemental notes for Indicator 41.